Tap. Tap. Tap

Taking calm footsteps beyond the waterfall, a pair of eyes intently stared at the tightly shut stone door as their owner momentarily stopped. A larger silhouette silently emerged from behind, stretching a hand towards the clueless target.

"Not this one, your cave is the one next to it."

A graceful figure covered by exquisitely decorated black robes, dark red hair stretching down to the waist, covering up a pair of intimidating eastern blades. The Blade Spirit, Cheon Jeong, lightly patted the absentminded Yeon on the shoulder.

"I Understand."

Two weeks following Leo's departure, the second one to finish the first phase was none other than Yeon. Her last dozen battles were especially something that the rest of the children could never forget

She was calm at first, but every following battle could only be described as a desperate bout of life and death. In the end, her last win was actually overwhelming for a change, grabbing more attention than that of Leo.

Shhhhhik!

Pushing the stone door, Yeon calmly walked into the 'luxurious' room. Unlike Leo who showed some surprise, her face was frozen as if this was a sight that she was used to. Cheon Jeong walked in with the same expression before throwing something to the bed.

"Here you go, this will be your new task for the time being."

She had thrown a bundle of fabric similar to the one that Leo received, but her eyes were still focused on Yeon. Although Iyeolhan was the only that had formally appeared in front of the children, he was just one of many acting as the Head Instructor. Cheon Jeong was naturally another that would check the beginners' training from far away to pick out good seeds like most of the instructors did, and Yeon just happened to be the one that caught her attention the most.

The battle instructors were merely opponents who lost their role at the end of the first phase, the true instructors had no need to show themselves at the beginning, but things would be different after that.

"Should I give you a hand?"

As if stuck in time, Yeon remained unmoving even when the bundle was presented to her. A rare smile appeared on the fearsome Blade Spirit's face as she pretended to be generous. Favoritism wasn't allowed in the Heavenly Furnace, especially during the first phase, but starting from the second one, there were exceptions that could be made!

It was called an exception, but it was more like a skipping stone. Basically, as long as one of the main instructors found a student they liked, they could show as much favor as they wanted by taking them as their personal students!

'She is just'

However, Yeon didn't even answer the question. She was in a world of her own, filtering away all the background buzz.

'Brilliant!'

Cheon Jeong's smile only grew larger as she could barely hold herself back, whether it was Yeon's personality, her quirk, her weapon of choice, everything about her was to her liking! She could barely sit still when she saw her last battle!

"Freedom."

She knew why this little child was doing all of this, she understood her purpose. The early stare, the repressed emotions, Cheon Jeong merely pretended to not know what Yeon was experiencing, but she most definitely knew how to motivate her.

"You will be given the freedom to move around and do as you please as long you finish the first step."

For the first time since she entered the room, words seemed to reach Yeon's ears once more. She glanced back at the smug Blade Spirit before approaching her bed, her next target had already been set.

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

'It keeps taking longer and longer'

Trapped in his room, Leo feebly guided the red energy to chip away at the obstacles, but the progress had only been slowing down more and more.

As he cleared more and more Energy Channels by the day, Leo didn't only get more mentally and physically exhausted, but he also started to 'see' more. The locations and shapes of the channels that used to be ambiguous now radiated with 'light', making it easier to direct the pill's energy to them and inspect the remaining blockage, but that didn't seem to make Leo's life any easier

'Should I just settle for this?'

He didn't know if this was more apparent for him thanks to his superior 'Mind' statistic, but the more Leo managed to see, the more he noticed the little remnants still stuck in the Energy Channels even after they were cleared. If he had given up on them, Leo was sure that he would have been done, but was that really the right thing to do?

Even though they appeared to be as small as specks of dust, even the smallest obstacle could cause disharmony with future Energy Circulation. Some people would consume Elixirs that completely cleansed the body after progressing further, but what they lost at the start couldn't be retaken. Leo could easily take the path, but he couldn't help contemplating one little question.

'Would I be able to stand up to them if I finish this?'

If anything was scarier than power then it was talent! Leo knew that Baekho's talent wasn't mediocre since he climbed up a bit far, but what if completely clearing his Energy Channels elevated that to the level of geniuses?

Geniuses that received help to clear theirs would be superior to those who had to clear their own, but what about geniuses that were born with Cleared Energy Channels from the very beginning? Was this something that Leo could reach on his own with a little bit of additional persistence?

'Irrelevant!'

Stimulated by the energy emerging from the pill he had swallowed, Leo shrugged off his lazy thoughts. Unlike his time as Arthur, he could no longer be someone that only aimed to survive! He was a person that had to either kill the protagonist or be killed, there was no other option!

Even if the effect of what he was doing was limited, spending time for even the smallest advantage he could get while he was ahead was obvious, there was no reason to give up!

'More!'

A month after his ascendance to the next phase, Leo finally emerged from his seclusion.